House of Commons CANADA Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage CHPC Ï NUMBER 033 Ï 2nd SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT EVIDENCE Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Chair Mr. Gary Schellenberger Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 1 Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Ï (1535) year, the concert was aired for the first time on Radio 2's Canada [English] Live as a result of the opening up of broadcast opportunities for more than classical music. We welcome that change. The Chair (Mr. Gary Schellenberger (Perth—Wellington, CPC)): Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to meeting number 33 of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. ln 1988, CBC Radio producers of the now defunct The Entertainers approached me, in my role as artistic director of Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are undertaking a study on Toronto's Harbourfront Centre summer concert season, regarding an the dismantling of the CBC Radio Orchestra, on CBC/Radio- opportunity to record elements of the then-just-Iaunched WOMAD Canada's commitment to classical music, and the changes to CBC —Worlds of Music Arts and Dance—festival. It was a revelation. Radio 2. The partnership involved a model whereby a $25,000 blanket fee I welcome all our witnesses here today. Our witnesses are Derek would give CBC the right to record performances. Thirty-three Andrews, president of the Toronto Blues Society; Dominic Lloyd, concerts were recorded that year, and thus began a partnership that artistic director of the West End Cultural Centre; Katherine Carleton, involved many further concert recordings over the years. executive director of Orchestras Canada; Peter McGillivray as an individual; Micheline McKay of Opera.ca; and, as an individual, The problem with that was that although there was interest from Debbie Peters. CBC producers to expose terrific talent from Canada's multicultural community, there was no broadcast home in the CBC schedule in Welcome to our meeting this afternoon. Everyone has five which to place the recordings. Some years, recordings were made for minutes to give a little presentation, if you could, please. broadcast; other years, there were none. Mr. Andrews. Mr. Derek Andrews (President, Toronto Blues Society): Thank The international award-winning Global Village radio magazine you for the opportunity to speak today. My invitation to appear today show, which enjoyed just one hour of broadcast time, was often has been linked to my involvement as president of the Toronto Blues home to snips of these concerts. Global Village is a Canadian brand. Society. I am here also as someone active in popular music as a It is synonymous with Marshall McLuhan and Canadian identity, but concert and festival producer. I am a consulting artist manager and I it is no longer on the air, and that is a shame. am currently executive director of the Guelph Jazz Festival. My experience over the past 30 years has positioned me well to view the ln 1997 I produced a concert featuring Vancouver's Spirit of the relationship between CBC Radio and blues, jazz, folk, and world West performing work from their Open Heart Symphony, produced music communities. in collaboration with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The On behalf of the Toronto Blues Society, I bring the committee Toronto version of the work enjoyed a 21-piece symphonic ensemble copies of the commemorative CD released in 2007 entitled Women's led by violinist Lenny Solomon. The concert was a terrific success Blues Revue Live. The recording is drawn from CBC Radio's archive and is, I believe, an example of why the CBC Radio Orchestra is of concerts recorded live over 10 years featuring 15 Canadian redundant. women blues singers. The event first began in a nightclub seating 150, and now it takes place in Toronto's Massey Hall. The original work was not a by-product of the radio orchestra. The body of work was portable. Clearly, if funds assigned to a one-city The CD recording exists because CBC Radio was involved as a orchestra can be moved to other projects, there will be greater equity. producing partner. I bring this example to the committee because Equity is a huge part of the proposed changes to Radio 2. there has always been a challenge in securing a broadcast home and a budget for the Women's Blues Revue concert. The contribution by CBC Radio has been in the neighbourhood of $5,000 per concert, a As a concert producer, I have been consulted by CBC Radio relatively small amount, but significant for a non-profit organization. management over the years regarding the needs of the broader music The most prominent broadcast home for the recording has been on community, and the answer has been obvious. With shrinking Holger Petersen's Saturday Night Blues, now aired weekly at 11 p.m. budgets, there is no way that Radio 2's schedule should remain the on Radio One. Occasionally the concert has landed at Sounds Like bastion of only classical and new music. It is essential that the Canada, and clips have aired on Definitely Not The Opera. This past airwaves and budgets be opened up. 2 CHPC-33 June 3, 2008 I have been consulted by CBC Radio producers in recent years, as versus them” scenario and that classical and non-classical music have many of my colleagues, regarding potential changes that are cannot coexist. I'm here to say they can and they should. more reflective of Canadian society. ln watching Toronto's robust music community evolve over the period of my career, I have seen Whether it's a symphony pop series with Sarah Slean, a pop many musicians receive artistic and commercial success. However, it singer, singing at the Winnipeg New Music Festival or a rapper from would be erroneous to suggest that the broad popular music Halifax, Buck 65, performing with Symphony Nova Scotia or community is on solid footing. members of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra performing in my venue with a South Asian fusion band from Toronto called A massive broadcasting gap exists in Canada between commercial autorickshaw, which the CBC just recorded in December, these are radio and the fledgling campus radio community. Only the CBC all developmental opportunities, both for classical and non-classical exists to support the thousands of Canadian artists in need of artists, and they need to be heard, and the CBC is the place where exposure. At the beginning of her career, Loreena McKennitt they are being heard. plucked her Celtic harp on the street in front of the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. Today she is an international icon. I do not wish I really don't like the fact that the debate is pitting one music to suggest that Measha Brueggergosman also busk on the street to community against another. We're all interested in the presentation advance her career. and preservation of important non-commercial music. What I've heard or what I seem to be getting a sense of is that people are saying I hope that the heritage committee can support CBC Radio that by adding a wider variety of programming to Radio 2, the CBC management's well-thought-out position that the CBC belongs to all is somehow going commercial. I think this is completely wrong. Canadians. All Canadian artists will enjoy fair play and even-handed The artists I work with are not artists who are getting airplay on exposure to the airwaves. The proposed changes to Radio 2 are not commercial radio. They are producing artistically sound and about Britney or garage bands; they are about equity. intelligent music, but it's not being played in the mainstream. Since The Chair: Thank you. You are right on five minutes. January 2007, the CBC has recorded 15 concerts I have presented at the West End Cultural Centre. These have included local folk Mr. Lloyd, please. singers, emerging talents of young aboriginal fiddlers from reserves Mr. Dominic Lloyd (Artistic Director, West End Cultural in northern Manitoba, new Canadian artists, a professional guitar Centre): Thank you. player from Brazil who now makes his home in Winnipeg, and a percussionist who played with the national orchestra of Mozambi- My name is Dominic Lloyd. I've been programming folk, roots, que. These people live in Winnipeg; they're performing in our and world music in Canada for a decade now. venues and they're being recorded and played across the country on CBC. My initial experience was six years as the artistic director of the Dawson City Music Festival in the Yukon Territory, and, more Their music is all valid and it all should be heard. You'd be hard- recently, I have been at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg, pressed to find any of them being played on commercial radio. As Manitoba. Derek said, outside the very fledgling campus community radio scene and perhaps CKUA in Alberta, the CBC is the only place Throughout my career I've been responsible for creating live many of these artists will get airplay. music performance opportunities for local, national, and interna- tional musicians in a variety of settings. So my intention on being here today is to underline the fact that the CBC is adding to its program, it's not taking away from it. I don't The West End Cultural Centre is an organization like no other in believe classical music is disappearing from the airwaves. I think Canada. We present approximately 80 concerts per year with there are thousands of independent Canadian artists who are emerging and established artists, and our mandate is to present music creating, performing, and touring non-commercial music who will out of the mainstream and to provide performance opportunities for benefit from these changes.